The Lost Constitution: How the Death of the Country Party Ethos Unravelled Australia's Export Sovereignty

Australia’s modern export vulnerability—illustrated by the supply of zirconium to China for potential use in nuclear and hypersonic weapons—reveals a deeper constitutional flaw. The Commonwealth’s trade powers were drafted to enable agrarian freedom and social equality through open markets, not to regulate strategic minerals in a globalised defence economy. The paper traces the constitutional origins of Australia’s export architecture, the evolution and decline of the Country Party’s custodial role, and the consequences for national sovereignty. It proposes a modern “Constitutional Export Doctrine” aligning critical-resource governance with the agrarian liberal principles that once defined Australian equality.